Sex offender can carry on teaching

Sex offender William Gibson has not been banned from teaching, despite the furore surrounding his employment at a school.

The director of the teaching agency which employs him said he had spoken to the Department of Education, which was happy for him to keep working.

The Department said in a statement that while it could not comment on individual cases, it would be at the discretion of schools who they should employ, having carried out a full range of checks.

Mr Gibson said: "I am delighted. This is fantastic news. I really hope this means I can teach again."

James Newman, director of London-based Step Teaching, told the newspaper: "We have spoken to the Department of Education.

"At the moment, we are in a position where, as far as we are concerned, the Department is not going back on their decision to allow Mr Gibson to work.

"It would appear that they are happy for him to carry on working."

Not on list 99

A Department spokesman said: "We do not comment on individual cases. But as we have made clear throughout, just because an individual is not put on list 99 it certainly does not mean they have been approved as suitable to work in a school.

"That decision is taken by the employer, having regard to the full range of checks including criminal record checks, which reveal whether somebody has a conviction, past or present."

Mr Gibson, 59, was suspended from the Portchester School in Bournemouth over the weekend after his 1980 conviction for indecently assaulting a 15-year-old girl came to light.

He had previously been removed from three schools in the North East and refused work by a supply agency that checked his details with the CRB, but his details were never entered on list 99, which bars teachers from working in schools.

Mr Gibson has protested that he is not a paedophile and not a risk to children.

The revelations come as Education Secretary Ruth Kelly prepares to promise tougher rules for vetting teachers in an attempt to end the row over sex offenders in schools.

She has come under intense pressure since it emerged that her office cleared Paul Reeve to work as a PE teacher in a Norfolk school even though he was on the sex offenders' register.